Conversations in Cultural Competency

A Call to Action for Healthcare Providers

During June of 2020, Quality Interactions held a weekly live webcast series of conversations on how to provide culturally-competent healthcare amid the Covid-19 pandemic and social unrest due to racial injustice. Led by Dr. Joseph Betancourt, and moderated by Michele Courton Brown, these candid discussions drew on Dr. Betancourt's experience leading the pandemic response at Massachusetts General Hospital and his longtime leadership in the fight against racial and ethnic healthcare disparities.

Manage Chronic Disease with the EFST Model for Cultural Competence

How can clinicians help ease the stress of chronic disease? Recent healthcare news stories published in The New York Times draw attention to the incredible burden of serious illness and chronic disease on critically sick patients. Not only are they physically uncomfortable and often fighting for their lives—they are also baffled by a confusing healthcare system and swamped by medical bills. Now imagine adding a language barrier to the mix! The challenges of serious illness are compounded when there are cross-cultural issues at play. Quality Interactions' EFST Model is designed to help clinicians uncover and address these issues and provide culturally-sensitive care to all patients with chronic disease.

• Health Equity Bill Introduced in Congress
• Medical Schools Must Do More to Combat Racism
• Experiment with Barbershop Clinics is Succeeding
  
  

Health Equity Bill Introduced in Congress

The Congressional Tri-Caucus, made up of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, and Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has introduced the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2018 (HEAA), a bill that attempts to address health disparities based on race and ethnicity. The authors note several reasons for these disparities, including language and cultural barriers to care.

The most common objection

I've given hundreds of presentations on culturally-competent care to busy clinicians around the world. At the end of my talk, someone always asks the "time question." I know plenty of other clinicians are thinking it, but don’t want to appear insensitive. So I wait for a brave soul to say, “Dr. Green, you’re telling me that if I want to be culturally competent, I have to do all of these things on top of what I already have to cover? I have to ask my patients how they understand their condition? What their religious practices are? Whether they trust me? I’d love to—but I just don’t have time!”

This has been a banner year for Moffitt Cancer Center, with five national distinctions honoring their steadfast commitment to equitable care, including recent recognition from the American Hospital Association (AHA) naming Moffitt an Equity of Care Award honoree.